Martin serves as the series' co-executive producer, while also scripting four episodes of the series. In 2005, Lev Grossman of Time called Martin "the American Tolkien",[3] and the magazine later named him one of the "2011 Time 100," a list of the "most influential people in the world."[4][5]

George Raymond Martin (he later adopted the confirmation name Richard at the age of 13)[6] was born on September 20, 1948,[7] in Bayonne, New Jersey,[8] the son of longshoreman Raymond Collins Martin and his wife Margaret Brady Martin. He has two younger sisters, Darleen and Janet. Martin's father was half Italian, while his mother was half Irish;[9] his family also contains German, English, and French ancestry.

The family first lived in a house on Broadway, belonging to Martin's great-grandmother. In 1953, they moved to a federal housing project near the Bayonne docks. During Martin's childhood, his world consisted predominantly of "First Street to Fifth Street", between his grade school and his home; this limited world made him want to travel and experience other places, but the only way of doing so was through his imagination, so he became a voracious reader.

When Martin's family moved to a larger apartment after his sister was born, he also had a view of the waters of the Kill van Kull, where freighters and oil tankers flying flags from distant countries were entering and leaving Port Newark. He had an encyclopedia with a list of flags, and when using it to figure out where the ships came from, he would find himself dreaming of traveling to these remote locations. After the sun went down, the lights from Staten Island would shine across the water, which in his imagination was Shangri-La and "Shanghai and Paris, Timbuctoo and Kalamazoo, Marsport and Trantor, and all the other places that I'd never been and could never hope to go".[10][11]

The young Martin began writing and selling monster stories for pennies to other neighborhood children, dramatic readings included. He also wrote stories about a mythical kingdom populated by his pet turtles; the turtles died frequently in their toy castle, so he finally decided they were killing each other off in "sinister plots".[12]

Martin attended Mary Jane Donohoe School and then later Marist High School. While there he became an avid comic-book fan, developing a strong interest in the innovative superheroes being published by Marvel Comics[13] A letter Martin wrote to the editor of Fantastic Four was printed in issue No. 20 (Nov 1963); it was the first of many sent, e.g., FF #32, #34, and others from his family's home at 35 E. First Street, Bayonne, NJ. Fans who read his letters then wrote him letters in turn, and through such contacts, Martin joined the fledgling comics fandom of the era, writing fiction for various fanzines;[14] he was the first to register for an early comic book convention held in New York in 1964.[15] In 1965, Martin won comic fandom's Alley Award for his prose superhero story "Powerman vs. The Blue Barrier",[citation needed] the first of many awards he would go on to win for his fiction.

In turn, Guthridge helped Martin find a job at Clarke University (then Clarke College). Martin "wasn't making enough money to stay alive", from writing and the chess tournaments, says Guthridge.[17] From 1976 to 1978, Martin was an English and journalism instructor at Clarke, and he became Writer In Residence at the college from 1978 to 1979.[citation needed]

While he enjoyed teaching, the sudden death of friend and fellow author Tom Reamy, in the fall of 1977, made Martin reevaluate his own life, and he eventually decided to try to become a full-time writer. He resigned from his job, and being tired of the hard winters in Dubuque, he moved to Santa Fe in 1979.[18]

In 1976, for Kansas City's MidAmeriCon, the 34th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), Martin and his friend and fellow writer-editor Gardner Dozois conceived of and organized the first Hugo Losers' Party for the benefit of all past and present Hugo-losing writers, their friends and families, the evening following the convention's Hugo Awards ceremony. Martin was nominated for two Hugos that year but lost both awards, for the novelette "...and Seven Times Never Kill Man" and the novella The Storms of Windhaven, co-written with Lisa Tuttle.[20] The Hugo Losers' Party became an annual Worldcon event thereafter, and its formal title eventually changed to something a bit more politically correct as both its size and prestige grew.

Although Martin often writes fantasy or horror, a number of his earlier works are science fiction tales occurring in a loosely defined future history, known informally as "The Thousand Worlds" or "The Manrealm". He has also written at least one piece of political-military fiction, "Night of the Vampyres", collected in Harry Turtledove's anthology The Best Military Science Fiction of the 20th Century (2001).[21]

The unexpected commercial failure of Martin's fourth book, The Armageddon Rag (1983), "essentially destroyed my career as a novelist at the time", he recalled. However, that failure led him to seek a career in television [12] after a Hollywood option on that novel led to his being hired, first as a staff writer and then as an Executive Story Consultant, for the revival of the Twilight Zone. After the CBS series was cancelled, Martin migrated over to the already-underway satirical science fiction series Max Headroom. He worked on scripts and created the show's "Ped Xing" character (the president of the Zic Zak corporation, Network 23's primary sponsor). Before his scripts could go into production, however, the ABC show was cancelled in the middle of its second season. Martin was then hired as a writer-producer on the new dramatic fantasy series Beauty and the Beast; in 1989 he became the show's co-supervising producer and wrote 14 of its episodes.[22]

During this same period, Martin continued working in print media as a book-series editor, this time overseeing the development of the multi-author Wild Cards book series, which takes place in a shared universe in which a small slice of post–World War II humanity gains superpowers after the release of an alien-engineered virus; new titles are still being published in the ongoing series from Tor Books. In Second Person Martin "gives a personal account of the close-knit role-playing game (RPG) culture that gave rise to his Wild Cards shared-world anthologies".[23] An important element in the creation of the multiple author series was a campaign of Chaosium's role-playing game Superworld (1983), that Martin ran in Albuquerque.[24] Martin's own contributions to Wild Cards have included Thomas Tudbury, "The Great and Powerful Turtle", a powerful psychokinetic whose flying "shell" consisted of an armored VW Beetle. As of June 2011, 21 Wild Cards volumes had been published in the series; earlier that same year, Martin signed the contract for the 22nd volume, Low Ball (2014), published by Tor Books. In early 2012, Martin signed another Tor contract for the 23rd Wild Cards volume, High Stakes.

While he was making a satisfactory living in Hollywood, he did not feel fulfilled given that so few of the projects he worked on ever went into production; "No amount of money can really take the place of... you want your stuff to be read. You want an audience and four guys in an executive office suite at ABC or Columbia is not adequate."[25]

Martin's novella, Nightflyers (1980), was adapted into an eponymous 1987 feature film; he was unhappy about having to cut plot elements for the screenplay's scenario in order to accommodate the film's small budget.[26]

In 1991, Martin briefly returned to writing novels and began what would eventually turn into his epic fantasy series: A Song of Ice and Fire, which was inspired by the Wars of the Roses and Ivanhoe. It is currently intended to comprise seven volumes. The first, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996. In November 2005, A Feast for Crows, the fourth novel in this series, became The New York Times No. 1 Bestseller and also achieved No. 1 ranking on The Wall Street Journal bestseller list. In addition, in September 2006, A Feast for Crows was nominated for both a Quill Award and the British Fantasy Award.[27] The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, was published July 12, 2011, and quickly became an international bestseller, including achieving a No. 1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List and many others; it remained on the New York Times list for 88 weeks. The series has received praise from authors, readers, and critics alike. In 2012, A Dance With Dragons made the final ballot for science fiction and fantasy's Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, Locus Poll Award, and the British Fantasy Award; the novel went on to win the Locus Poll Award for Best Fantasy Novel. Two more novels are planned and still being written in the Ice and Fire series: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.

HBO Productions purchased the television rights for the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series in 2007 and began airing the fantasy series on their U. S. premium cable channel April 17, 2011. Titled Game of Thrones, it ran weekly for ten episodes, each approximately an hour long.[28] Although busy completing A Dance With Dragons and other projects, George R. R. Martin was heavily involved in the production of the television series adaptation of his books. Martin's involvement included the selection of a production team and participation in scriptwriting; the opening credits list him as a co-executive producer of the series. The series was renewed shortly after the first episode aired.

The first season was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards, ultimately winning two

The second season, based on the second Ice and Fire novel A Clash of Kings, began airing on HBO in the U.S. April 1, 2012; the second season was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards, including another Supporting Actor nomination for Dinklage. It went on to win six of those Emmys in the Technical Arts categories, which were awarded the week before the regular televised 2012 awards show. The second season episode "Blackwater", written by George R.R. Martin, was nominated the following year for the 2013 Hugo Award in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form category; that episode went on to win the Hugo Award at LoneStarCon 3, the 71st World Science Fiction Convention, in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to Martin, showrunners Benioff and Weiss (who contributed several scenes to the final screenplay) and episode director Neil Marshal (who expanded the scope of the episode on set) received Hugo statuettes.

Martin's work has been described by the Los Angeles Times as having "complex story lines, fascinating characters, great dialogue, perfect pacing".[29] While the New York Times sees it as "fantasy for grown ups",[30] others feel it is dark and cynical.[31] His first novel, Dying of the Light, set the tone for some of his future work; it unfolds on a mostly abandoned planet that is slowly becoming uninhabitable as it moves away from its sun. This story has a strong sense of melancholy. His characters are often unhappy or, at least, unsatisfied, in many cases holding on to idealisms in spite of an otherwise chaotic and ruthless world, in many cases troubled by their own self-seeking or violent actions, even as they undertake them. Many have elements of tragic heroes or antiheroes in them; reviewer T. M. Wagner writes, "Let it never be said Martin doesn't share Shakespeare's fondness for the senselessly tragic."[32]

The overall gloominess of A Song of Ice and Fire can be an obstacle for some readers; the Inchoatus Group writes, "If this absence of joy is going to trouble you, or you're looking for something more affirming, then you should probably seek elsewhere."[33] For many fans, however, it is precisely this level of "realness" and "completeness", including many characters' imperfections, moral/ethical ambiguity, and consequential plot twists (often sudden), that is endearing about Martin's work and keeps the series' story arcs compelling enough to keep following despite its sheer brutality and intricately messy/interwoven plotlines; as TM Wagner points out, "There's great tragedy here, but there's also excitement, humor, heroism even in weaklings, nobility even in villains, and, now and then, a taste of justice after all. It's a rare gift when a writer can invest his story with that much humanity."[32]

Martin's characters are multifaceted, each with intricate pasts, aspirations, and ambitions. Publishers Weekly writes of his ongoing epic fantasy A Song of Ice and Fire, "The complexity of characters such as Daenerys, Arya and the Kingslayer will keep readers turning even the vast number of pages contained in this volume, for the author, like Tolkien or Jordan, makes us care about their fates."[34] Misfortune, injury, and death (including false death and reanimation) often befall major or minor characters, no matter how attached the reader has become. Martin has described his penchant for killing off important characters as being necessary for the story's depth: "when my characters are in danger, I want you to be afraid to turn the page, (so) you need to show right from the beginning that you're playing for keeps".[35]

In distinguishing his work from others, Martin makes a point of emphasizing realism and plausible social dynamics above an over-reliance on magic and a simplistic "good versus evil" dichotomy, which contemporary fantasy writing is often criticized for. Notably, Martin's work makes a sharp departure from the prevalent "heroic knights and chivalry" schema that has become a mainstay in fantasy as derived from the Lord of the Rings series of J.R.R. Tolkien. He specifically critiques the oversimplification of Tolkien's themes and devices by imitators in ways that he has humorously described as "Disneyland Middle Ages"[36] that gloss over or even ignore major differences between medieval and modern societies, particularly social structures, ways of living, and political arrangements. Martin has been described as "the American Tolkien" by literary critics.[37] While Martin finds inspiration in Tolkien's legacy,[38] he aims to go beyond what he sees as Tolkien's "medieval philosophy" of "if the king was a good man, the land would prosper" to delve into the complexities, ambiguities, and vagaries of real-life power: "We look at real history and it's not that simple ... Just having good intentions doesn't make you a wise king."[39]

In fact, the author makes a point of grounding his work on a foundation of historical fiction, which he channels to evoke important social and political elements of primarily the European medieval era that differ markedly from elements of modern times, including the multigenerational, rigid, and often brutally consequential nature of the hierarchical class system of feudal societies[40] that is in many cases overlooked in fantasy writing. Even as A Song of Ice and Fire is a fantasy series that employs magic and the surreal as central to the genre, Martin is keen to ensure that magic is merely one element of many that moves his work forward,[41] not a generic deus ex machina that is itself the focus of his stories, something he has been very conscious about since reading Tolkien; "If you look at The Lord of the Rings, what strikes you, it certainly struck me, is that although the world is infused with this great sense of magic, there is very little onstage magic. So you have a sense of magic, but it's kept under very tight control, and I really took that to heart when I was starting my own series."[42] Martin's ultimate aim is an exploration of the internal conflicts that define the human condition, which, in deriving inspiration from William Faulkner,[43] he ultimately describes as the only reason to read any literature, regardless of genre.[44]

This nuanced, multi-layered, all-encompassing nature of Martin's work has consistently received accolades – his work has "captured the imaginations of millions for the same reason the archetypal dramas of Homer, Sophocles or Shakespeare have lasted for millennia. They show us the conflict between self-sacrifice and self-interest, between the human spirit and the human ego, between good and evil. And when we look up from the page we recognise those same conflicts in the world around us and in ourselves."[45][46]

Martin is known for his regular attendance through the decades at science fiction conventions and comics conventions, and his accessibility to fans. In the early 1980s, critic and writer Thomas Disch identified Martin as a member of the "Labor Day Group", writers who regularly congregated at the annual Worldcon,[48] usually held on or around the Labor Day weekend. Since the early 1970s he has also attended regional science fiction conventions, and since 1986 Martin has participated annually in Albuquerque's smaller regional convention Bubonicon, near his New Mexico home.[49] He was invited to be Guest of Honor at the 61st World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto, held in 2003.[50][51]

Martin's official fan club is the "Brotherhood Without Banners", who have a regular posting board at the Forum of the website westeros.org, which is focused on his Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. At the annual World Science Fiction Convention every year, the BWB hosts a large, on-going hospitality suite that is open to all members of the Worldcon;[52] their suite frequently wins by popular vote the convention's best party award.[citation needed]

Martin has been criticized by some of his readers for the long periods between books in the Ice and Fire series, notably the six-year gap between the fourth volume, A Feast for Crows (2005), and the fifth volume, A Dance with Dragons (2011).[53][54] The previous year, in 2010, Martin had responded to fan criticisms by saying he was unwilling to write only his Ice and Fire series, noting that working on other prose and compiling and editing different book projects has always been part of his working process.[55]

In the early 1970s, Martin was in a relationship with fellow science-fiction/fantasy author Lisa Tuttle,[58] with whom he co-wrote Windhaven.

While attending an East Coast science fiction convention he met his first wife, Gale Burnick; they were married in 1975, but the marriage ended in divorce, without issue, in 1979. On February 15, 2011, Martin married his longtime partner Parris McBride during a small ceremony at their Santa Fe home. On August 19, 2011, they held a larger wedding ceremony and reception at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, in Reno, Nevada.[59]

He and his wife Parris are supporters of the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in New Mexico.[60] In early 2013 he purchased Santa Fe's Jean Cocteau Cinema and Coffee House, which had been closed since 2006. He had the property completely restored, including both its original 35 mm capability to which was added digital projection and sound; the Cocteau officially reopened for business on August 9, 2013.[61] Martin has also supported Meow Wolf, an arts collective in Santa Fe, having pledged $2.7 million towards a new art-space in January 2015.[62][63]

In response to a question on his religious views, Martin replied: "I suppose I'm a lapsed Catholic. You would consider me an atheist or agnostic. I find religion and spirituality fascinating. I would like to believe this isn't the end and there's something more, but I can't convince the rational part of me that makes any sense whatsoever."[64]

In the midst of pressure to pull The Interview (2014) from movie theatres, the Jean Cocteau theatre in Santa Fe, New Mexico (owned by George R.R. Martin since 2013) decided to show the film. “As a movie theater, we are not just involved in the entertainment business. We are involved in the First Amendment business, protecting our freedoms,” theatre manager Jon Bowman told the Santa Fe New Mexican.[68]

^Rutkoff, Aaron (July 8, 2011). "Garden State Tolkien: Q&A With George R.R. Martin". The Wall Street Journal. "Mr. Martin, 62 years old, says that he grew up in a federal housing project in Bayonne, which is situated on a peninsula.... 'My four years at Marist High School were not the happiest of my life,' the author admits, although his growing enthusiasm for writing comics and superhero stories first emerged during this period."